Dee James
Active Member
Hi Dee,
My sentiments exactly. I read the horror stories but felt I had enough ability to do most jobs myself and keep the costs down, parts aren't that bad its the labor that hurts.
So felt for a small investment you get a hell of a lot of car for your money (£4k for a car that someone - admittedly quite a while ago- paid circa£40k for. I'm really glad i did, i love it and the fuel economy is just a minor disappointment (I was expecting it to be thirsty just not quite as much as it is) but it was always factored into my decision to buy it. It only does about 5k miles a year or less so not too big a deal, wouldn't have got it for my work commute daily runner :-0.
I too intend to keep it a good while, will probably run it till it dies
Mine is the inspiration model so does have the 275 tyres on, I will definitely look into what tyre reduction I can get away with for my wheels.
Not sure how I diagnose if the CAT is blocked or not, how much did your new CAT cost and did you replace both or just the one in the engine bay?
All the best.
Moz
Hi Moz
mine went into limp mode so i scanned it and found it related to low boost pressure, after testing it a few times i could hear a blowing noise which made me suspect the CATs a Mercedes specialist confirmed it - unfortunately the front one had destroyed the second so i had to replace both, the parts cost alone was just over £500. While i was at it i had them do the serpentine belt because it was passed it`s best and i changed the MAF myself and checked the EGR and swirl flaps. There are plenty of people on here and elsewhere who have gutted there CATs with no issues whatsoever but no one here wanted to do it and most advised against it, a friend who`s an MOT tester told me he had failed plenty of vehicles with gutted CATs (i didn`t ask him if that was because he saw they had been done or ask how many had probably passed . . .) so i bit the bullet and just had them done. The only other things i`ve done was the tyres, tie rods, track rods service and rear disks and pads. It sounds like a lot and probably is but the car still stands me at less than £5k and it has FSH and invoices for work done in the last two and a half years totaling up to over £3k!